Blackbird Rising
by Snea
Summary: Things have been getting restless lately for the Titans. Things have been disappering around the world. But when something else appears, the Titans have their hands full. ALL of them.
1. Prologue

**Blackbird Rising**

by Snea a.k.a. Rakushi

**A/N**: So annoying. These new fic rules are _so_ wrong. Anyway, repost of prologue for my second TT fic (which is the prequel to my first one that I'm not posting till this is done). Enjoy...again!

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**Disclaimer**: Like I own Teen Titans. If I did, BB and Rae would be together and Terra wouldn't exist. XD

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**Key**:

"..." – Regular Speech

'...' – Regular Thought

**_Bold Italics_** –Flashback

"_Italic speech"_ – Different language (depends on character)

/.../ – Thought Speech/Telepathy

Anything in between (...) and is italic or bold-italic is the translation.

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**Prologue**

She looked around the doorway, eyes glittering in the dim light of the building ruins. She slid inside the room and looked around. No one was present.

Good. She looked back out the doorway to make sure no one had followed. No one had, and she started to get nervous. Things normally went wrong at this point, and nothing had. Sighing, she turned back to the empty room.

A previously empty room that was now filled with robo-ninjas, that is. Her mouth dropped open. 'No. Way.' A shadow behind the lines of ninjas moved. The lines parted and a man walked forward. He was dressed in a simple charcoal Armani suit, black dress shoes, and a one-eyed mask, half-black half-red. A yellow 'E' surrounded in a blue hexagon with a purple border was stamped on the pocket of his suit. Blackbird growled, extending her claws and narrowing her eyes. The man looked at her and shook his head. He narrowed his own eye and 'tsked.'

"_Blackbird_,_ Blackbird_,_ Blackbird_," he chided. "Or should I call you experiment one-oh-nine?" he asked. She bristled and bared her teeth, growling louder. The man grinned behind his mask. He'd hit his mark like a pro archer. "Edals does not like misbehavior, One-oh-nine, as you remember from our _shocking_ years together." He said this slowly, as if the words were oil, and as he said this he pulled a taser-gun from behind his back.

She shrank back from the sight of it. Edals stepped closer and said, in his oily voice, "Apparently you have a fascination with our ruined laboratory" -he gestured around at broken glass, aged support beams, and large gears- "that should have been contained by you and your fellow Modern Titans 3 years ago. So why come back now?"

Her form shifted and she spoke. "Because someone forgot to turn the lights off!" She lunged, teeth bared, pupils constricted in rage. The robots sprang to life, firing and leaping at the girl. Grabbing her, they pinned her down as the man stepped forward.

Edals sighed, pulling out a syringe as he stepped towards the struggling creature being held. Removing the cap of the syringe, he attached it to the top of the taser-gun. A needle tip extended from the gun between the conductors, and an electric current arched around the needle. A sharp jerk shook off two of the ninjas, making Edals pause and think.

The combined effect of the electric current and substance would viralate the girl's mind and body, making further and experimentation on her useless. He watched the fruitless struggle against the robots pursue. For a second, he pitied the girl, but a stray swipe on his shoe rectified the sentiment. He plunged the needle into her side, pressing the trigger and watching the electricity short circuit the remaining robots holding the girl down. But then something happened he didn't expect.

Rather than weaken her, as it was supposed to, the electricity seemed to have no effect. Well, no immediately visible effect.

Her eyes shot open, pupils, which had been dilated, were no longer visible. An arch of electricity streaked up the taser and made the syringe explode. The shattered glass embedded itself in Edals' hand, drawing blood and making him back up quickly. With a yowl of pain, electricity still arching around her, _Blackbird_ disappeared. The taser-gun fell to the ground, the hollow clatter echoed in the room.

Edals bit back a curse.

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(**...end prologue...**)

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Okay, basically what I was trying to get across here was that it was supposed to infect her...badly. Don't think 'viralate' is a word though...

**A/N**: Okay, I'm reposting this b/c FF.N deleted it b/c it had that announcement chapter on it. XP Evil ones... Anyway, the second chapter is kinda short, but will be up soon (if SOLs don't get in the way).


	2. Chapter One, Pt I: Stories

**Blackbird Rising**

**By Snea**

**A/N:** Chapter one! Whee:D I've had this done for a while now, I just wasn't sure if I should use it though. Anyway, enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** I own "Zinthos" and the unknown characters she mentions. Not the Teen Titans. If I did...hell, it'd be cooler and come on more often. XD

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**Key**:

"..." –Regular speech

'...' –Regular thought

**_Bold Italics_** –Flashback

"_Italic speech"_ –Different language (depends on character what language that is)

/.../ –Thought speech/Telepathy

(...) –Translation

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**Chapter One (Pt. I):** $70r13$ stories

**(...trans-i-s-on be--n...)**

_My name is Zinthos Ar-&-lla Miriam -($-n. My parents are the former Teen Titans, (_**data corruption...data stream recovered: begin)**_ born into turbulent times between Freaks and Humans. You're probably confused 4$ t0 w#47 1 m34n by Freak. It's kind 0f l1k3 th3 difference between a tiger and a lion: they're both cats, but still different species. Humans are Homo sapiens and Freaks are Homo (sapiens) superus; in layman's terms: mutant$ or met4-humans._

_I was also born into two depressing agreements. The first being my inheritance of my mother's abdicated thrown, the second being my engagement to an Aviarian. My parents did the best they could to keep me out of those agreements, but the government that appointed them was stronger than they thought. 1 was pinned to these agreements whether I wanted them or not. 4! 7#3y c0u!d do w4s wait for me to c0m3 0f age 4nd refu$e._

_H0p3 I'd r3fu$3 anyway._

_But the worst thing happened before 1 could. 3 years before I was born, the entire state of California was disconnected from the United States western coast. For five full hours, the state of California was known as the **island** of California. 7his happened because Freak lost its temper with the Teen Titans and decided that if it couldn't have what it wanted from them, the Titans couldn't have anything either. The Freak split the California fault line and then tried to sink the island, resulting in only solution._

_The Titans killed said Freak_ **(data stream pending...data stream loaded: begin)**

_My mother and father reattached the state. How they did that is another story, but in saving the island new mountain ridges sprung up, isolating the devastated area. California suffered hard for seventeen months, the uncharted and new mountains on the boarder were treacherous to those who tried to cross them, so air aid was the only option left._

00000000011111000011000100_ a month after that devastation, a repeat of 9/11(almost 40 years before) occurred in Alexandria, Virginia, then in Richmond, then in Bethesda, Maryland; Arlington, Prince _000011110000001000**(data infection...data cleansed: begin)**00020000001000110_George's County and Fairfax, Virginia. It continued until the entire area surrounding Washington, DC was nothing but chaos. Air traffic was shut down for ten months, bringing the United Stated to a screeching and horrifying halt before shoving the world into the most demanding time yet: **awareness**._

**(transmission interrupted...data stream lost: end transmission)**

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**A/N**: Yes, my friends, chapter one, _part one_. :D I feel evil today. After all, I just turned sixteen yesterday (May 26th) so I'm happy with myself. Anyway, excuse the shortness, but I realized that if I didn't do something to this chapter (all the numbers and stuff, or L33t for ya'll) then I'd be giving away WAY too much info then I wanted to. Plus, this was originally my first pitch for this chapter (except for it being a part one) which makes things easier for me.Now, before you continue, I have ONE last thing to say: OOC-ness galore! Why? Because if I don't, the story makes NO sense. Enjoy! R&R please!

**A/N2**: Evil server. It won't let me upload stuff! Oruse symbols!Well, at least it works now. Enjoy!


	3. Chapter One, Pt II: Hints

**Blackbird Rising**

by Snea

**Disclaimer**: If I owned Teen Titans, Terra would have fallen in the lava too. And Cy and Jinx would get together. :D

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**Key**:

"..." –Regular Speech

'...' –Regular Thought

**_Bold Italics_** –Flashback

"_Italic Speech"_ –Different language (depends on character for language)

/.../ -Thought Speech/Telepathy

(...) –Translation

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**Chapter One (Pt. 2):** Hints

Light.

That was the first thing she became aware of. _Azar_, her head heart. She moaned in pain and closed her eyes, hands feeling around the pebbly surface of concrete. It was warm to the touch, like it had been baking in the sun for a while.

She shifted until she could sit up. Her eyes were already checking her surroundings, ignoring the lancing pain in her head.

Or was that her side?

She looked down to see blood pooling around underneath her. She bit her lip as she sat up fully. Her shorts where tacky with blood and her shirt was sticking to her back. She grimaced as she pulled it away from her side. A bloody hole greeted her; black threads from her shirt were burned into it.

'So that's what's preventing the healing,' she thought, 'that sucks. Now I'm gonna be woozy.' She rolled onto her knees before slowly standing up. She scanned the room again only to find she was in an abandoned warehouse (again) underneath a skylight. She looked up through it, shielding her eyes with a hand.

Sighing, she once again looked down at the ground. She now stood in a puddle of blood, as more of the red liquid dribbled down her side and pale leg into her shoe. She closed her eyes and shook her head, dark hair swishing in and about her face.

"Zinthos, you've done it now."

-:-

'Stupid hole,' she thought viciously, holding her side as blood gushed through her fingers. There was only so much blood you could wipe off your legs with your hands, especially when the wound was still bleeding.

She couldn't go into the city covered in blood, so the hospital was out. Which meant she could only get the treatment she needed in one other place, and it was almost two decades in the future.

Titans Tower was her destination.

And her sure-to-be undoing.

A half-hour earlier she had scanned and figured what time period she was in. To say she'd freaked out would be an understatement. She literally had a panic attack.

"Don't touch anything, don't mess with anything. Sci-fi rule number one: you start messin' with the past and you end up with monkey's ruling the future."

A saying she'd never taken seriously until now. Why? Because the Titans currently occupying the tower...

...were the parents of those occupying the tower in **her** time.

She stopped and screamed to the sky, "Why the hell is it always me! WHY!"

"Screaming doesn't normally answer that kind of question." She whirled around to come face-to-face with golden cat-like eyes.

"Yah!" She fell backward, landing on the cement with a thump. She turned on her side, curling into the fetal position as she held the back of her head in pain. Tears streaming from her eyes, she looked back to glare at the dark-skinned girl. "What was that for!"

The girl smiled, showing predatory teeth in light laughter. "It's been almost three hundred years and that's all you have to say to me? Well that's nice." Her voice held a lilting Irish accent, defying her exotic look.

Dark, ebony colored skin was complemented with the model looks of long legs, a small torso, a small chest, long fingers, and blue-black hair down her back. The shape of her face made her look Hispanic, with high cheekbones, a small nose and mouth, and thick eyelashes framing the one thing that marked her as unusual. She had golden eyes with cat pupils. The extremely thin eyebrows only made her seem foreign.

As it was, the girl was wearing a black satin and lace tank-top with some denim shorts and black high-heeled ankle boots. She crossed her arms and said, in a mocking voice, "Hello, Jaymon, nice to see you, Jaymon. No. I get a scream to my face." She cut an icy look at the girl getting off the ground. Her yellow eyes widened, stare focused on a spot of the pale girl's stomach. "What in Lord's name did you do to your side, Z?" The girl in question flinched and put a bloody hand back to her side.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Don't worry about it." She started to turn away. Jaymon stopped her.

"Zinthos!" She turned. Jaymon was holding something out. A black hoodie. "Here," she walked up and tied the sleeves together over the wound. "To stop the bleeding, or slow it down at least." She leaned forward and placed a kiss between the girl's eyes. "Azar's blessing to you, Zinthos. I'll distract them for you."

-:-

Robin had only one thought as he flew through the air: 'This is gonna hurt.' And it did, as a few loose bricks rained down on him from the wall he'd just hit.

"Robin! You okay, man?" Cyborg called back to him, sonic cannon basting as the girl in front of them did cartwheel after cartwheel out of the way of projectiles.

Robin grunted and stood up. He watched the girl in front of them. Beast Boy was doing his best to try and get her without getting hit the same. Terra kept trying to get the asphalt around the girl's legs, while Starfire threw starbolt after starbolt.

The girl was taunting them! She'd broken the bullet proof glass in the bank with her fist, waited for the bank tellers to call the police, who in turn called the Titans, and then threw everyone out on the street before sitting on the counter to wait. She was insane!

Robin glanced around. Where was Raven? There was a loud yelp and Robin whipped his head back to their adversary, pulling out a Birdarang reflexively. He relaxed instantly.

Raven had phased up behind the girl to get her inside a black orb. Either the girl knew she couldn't win now, or she didn't care. Robin looked around to make sure his team was safe and mostly uninjured. Starfire had a few cuts from flying glass; Cyborg had a few dents and cracks. Terra seemed fine, as did Raven and Beast Boy. Robin's back already felt like one large bruise.

Stiffly, he walked over to the imprisoned girl with as much dignity as his back would allow. He nearly fainted when he knelt down to look the girl in the eye, only Starfire's hand on his shoulder kept him from falling over. The girl watched all of this without so much as a sniffle. Robin looked at her.

"Who sent you?" The girl smiled, but said nothing. Robin clenched a fist slightly. "Why did you do this?" Again, her only response was a grin as she crossed her arms and stared at him, predatory teeth showing. Robin glared.

"If you don't tell us who you–!"

The girl interrupted, "You sent me. To protect someone." She leaned back against the black bubble's wall. "So far, I've been here too long without acquainting myself to you. After all, you know my mother." She shrugged. "Of course, I'm only half of that." She looked sharply at Robin.

Robin blinked. "Half?"

The girl grinned again, showing her extremely pointed canines. "Yes, 'half.' The other fifty percent," she leaned forward slightly, "is bait." Robin barely managed to throw himself back in time as the bubble burst outward with a loud grating sound. The force of Raven's powers being shredded knocked over the Titans and blew out the windows of the T-Car and the R-Cycle's windshield (as well as a few shop windows). By the time they'd recovered, she was gone.

-:-

"I still don't get it." Cyborg grumbled. Raven, sitting next to him with a book, only made a small sound in acknowledgement.

Terra, sitting in the back next to Beast Boy, asked, "What don't you get?"

Cyborg glanced at her through the cracked rear view mirror, "What that girl meant by _us_ sending her to protect someone."

Terra shrugged, "Maybe she's crazy. Ow!" She brought her hand to her mouth to suck on the side. Beast Boy, who'd had his head stuck out the broken window as a dog, grinned sheepishly at her.

"Sorry, Terra." He turned his attention to Cyborg as he sat down and buckled up. "Maybe she'd some kind of creature from another planet with a duplicate here on Earth, sent by exact look-alikes of us!" This testament was followed by silence. Finally realizing he'd been ignored, Beast Boy pouted and crossed his arms leaning back into the seat.

-:-

Cyborg sat in his room typing away on his computer. A video had popped up in his inbox a couple of days before. It was so encrypted that overlapping codes had shredded how segments into binary code that scrolled across the bottom of the screen. Now her was trying his best to make it more understandable.

He hit the enter key and watched as numbers and equations flowed over the screen. He held his breath. This **had** to work.

It did, He let out his breath.

Until twos scrolled across the screen with the zeros and ones that made up binary code. Frustration built up until Cyborg felt like ripping his computer from the wall and throwing it across the room. He glared at the screen and started to stand up so he wouldn't rip it apart when a 'ding' sounded and a prompt popped open. The metal-hybrid sat down in bewilderment.

"What the heck..."

**Password?** blinked the computer.

"Um," Cyborg looked down at the keys and started typing.

**Victor**

**Password incorrect. Password?**

**Titans**

**Password incorrect. Hint: T² Password?**

'T squared?' thought Cyborg. "What the heck?" He typed again.

**T Squared**

**Password incorrect. Hint 2: Azarath. Password?**

Cyborg blinked and stood quickly. Going over to his door, he opened it and stuck his head out.

"RAVEN!" If there'd been a hanging light above his head it surely would have fallen.

Raven phased through the floor behind him, hood down, just as he opened his mouth to yell again.

"RA–!" A band of black stretched over his mouth.

"What is it?" Raven asked through gritted teeth. "I was _meditating_."

Cyborg mouthed something behind the empath's powers. Rolling her eyes she released him in mid-sentence.

"–hint was Azarath! How am I supposed to know anything about Azarath!"

Raven blinked at him, interest piqued. "What hint was Azarath?" He grabbed her arm and dragged her into his room. He pushed her down into the computer chair and pointed to the screen.

"This thing wants a password. I put in my name–."

"Is that your normal password?" Raven asked, looking up at him. He paused in his explanation, hand still pointing at the screen. Raven's eyebrow raised in disbelief. "You're joking. Even **you** aren't that stupid." When he didn't reply, she turned back to the screen and typed.

**Azar**

**Password incorrect. Hint 3: Azar Raven Blackbird**

"Okay, I'm confused. Explain to me what's happening," Cyborg put in.

"It wants the translations..." Raven said, trailing off in slight disbelief. He looked down at her as she stared at what was in front of them. She reached for the keyboard.

**Azarath Metrion Zinthos**

**Password: Accepted.**

Raven let our her breath as Cyborg let out a loud whoop and promptly grabbed her out of the chair and hugged her before jumping around in joy. Dropping her (literally), Cyborg came to a stop. His hand shot into the air, pointer finger extended like he'd just discovered ice, "This calls for a 12-inch pepperoni sub with Coke!" He shot out of the room and down the hall. Raven stared after him as she got up off the floor (he _had_ dropped her) and walked out of the room.

The computer beeped.

**Commencing Scan.**

A few minutes passed.

**Scan Complete. Commencing final playback.**

A fuzzy static image filled the screen and crackly audio filled the room, destroying the silence and sounds of computer fans.

"if you're seeing this...sume the worst has...happened. My name is Jordan, and my mother is...of Titans. This message will play...times and only that, so listen carefully." The image changed, becoming clearer, but pixilated. Two-toned eyes on a pale face. The figure began speaking, the image coming and going with the audio.

"My name is Zinthos..."

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**Reviewer Thanks**:

notexactlyagoddes

raerob4ever

Sorceress of Demon Otters  
FireMistress13

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Bahaha! I've returned! I'm not dead! w00t! anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter. It's **_majorly_** long. XP I hadn't planned for that, but I was trying to cram as much in as possible. And I still have more to add. Gwha! I got so tired of capitalizing Beast Boy's name that I went and set my computer to do it automatically. lol! Well, I missed the Friday deadline I gave myself because I didn't type this fast enough. This is 5 pages on here and 10 in writing of hard work and many CDs. R&R please!

**Rakushi Snea**

Wow, um...this has been on my laptop since January. I am sorry. Please don't kill me.


	4. Chapter Two: Security of Times

Blackbird Rising  
by Snea A/N: This was actually supposed to be two chapters. But I decided to combine them to make more progress. Of course, this means I don't have two chapters to post like I'd wanted to. Well, at least now you have an extra long one than originally planned.

Anyway, there's a list of episodes I need everyone to erase from their minds, even though they were burned in when they aired: 1) Betrayal, 2) Aftershock Pt. 1 & 2, 3) The End Pt. 1-3. So, in essence, the Titans learn all about Raven's deal, but Terra hasn't betrayed them, whee. Titan Rising I placed after The Prophecy, although I did push the Raven arc further down the timeline to fit. Birthmark is in the same place (Terra comment is replace with something else...you'll see later on since I don't know what it is yet), but everything else is _really_ spaced out and squished so that all the episodes _not_ concerning Raven but after Birthmark are _between_ Birthmark and The Prophecy with Titan Rising on the end. So this fic is picking up about two years down the road to that, making Cyborg 19 about to turn 20, Robin 19, Starfire 18, Terra 18, Raven 18, and Beast Boy just turned 18 (in order from oldest to youngest, poor BB). 

Now that we have the extremely confusing (for you, I'm guessing) timeline out of the way, continue on. But, again, Terra hasn't betrayed them, so she and BB _are_ together. Like I said, members of the infamous 'R&B Shippers United' and fellow Raveast fans: **flame me**.

**Disclaimer**: Oh yeah, I own Teen Titans. I also own Jackie Chan Adventures and Xaolin Showdown. Phhtt! Suckers!

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**Key**:  
"..." –Regular speech  
'...' –Regular thought  
**_Bold Italics_** –Flashback  
_"Italic speech"_ –Different language (depends on character what language that is)  
/.../ –Thought speech/Telepathy  
_Italic_ –Translation

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**Chapter Two:** Security of Times

Cyborg sat his sub down, still chewing as he contemplated something. Had the security system always felt like that?

Cyborg, being true to his name, was a hybrid of machine and human. Thus, being so, he was tapped into pretty much everything electronic in the Tower. The security frame was one, and the most important. The security frame was like a giant slate of marble in Cyborg's eyes. Normally it was pockmarked with all the times the Titans had punched in their enter/exit codes. The gritty feeling was still there, but a long, smooth plane was burned through. An almost sticky-like feeling was covering the rest of registry.

_Someone had wiped the frame._

Cyborg frowned and checked his records. Who had been the last to punch in? The T-Car came up.

'Three hours old. When we came back,' he thought. He checked further back. The T-Car popped up again. 'Four hours old. When we left. Look like I was wrong.' He sighed and started back to close the frame.

A small blip caught his attention before he could. It was the T-Car's code. Only it had logged in and out within a half-hour.

_While they'd been fighting._

Cyborg stood quickly, abandoning his sandwich. He needed to tell the others about this.

Today was just one of those days. The kind you always remembered but wanted to forget. The ones that pestered you to do something that needed to be done no matter how slow. Today was pestering Beast Boy. It was pestering him to think, the one thing he didn't want to do.  
Thinking led to doubting, doubting led to confusion, and Beast Boy dealt with enough confusion as it was. So why would he want to make more of it?  
'Because your life was built on confusion?' he thought.  
It was summer. A warm summer at that with a current heat wave. The Tower's air conditioner had once again been stressed to its max, forcing the Titans to open windows in hopes of breezes. The air in the Tower was sticky, muggy, and Beast Boy's extremely light covering of fur didn't help him much to stay cool.  
He was currently camped out in his room, splayed on top of the sheets of his bed, and wearing boxers with his window open to catch the breeze. He had long ago given up his bunk bed and now had a full size against the wall. Posters lined the forest green walls picturing various bands like Linkin Park, Sum41, System of a Down, The Killers, and, the most modern, Aiko-Aiko Yori-Yori. His green eyes stared up at the black ceiling as he thought. He sat up and ran his hands through his hair furiously.  
'NO! No thinking! Just get up, eat some lunch, and play videogames! No laying here thinking over the world!' He mentally scolded himself as he fell back onto the bed. Sighing, he gave his brain a limit on how long he was going to let it wander. 'Five minutes,' he thought to it, 'If you're not back by then, too bad.' His mind raced off to do the day's bidding.  
The first thought it hovered over were the current relationships in the tower. Beast Boy's teammates had all grown as much as he had: mentally and personality wise as well as physically. And almost each of them was in a romantic relationship as well. Robin and Starfire had _finally_ gotten together, Cyborg and Bumblebee had announced their engagement two months earlier, and he and Terra's relationship was starting to get more intimate.  
Now this was were the confusion started to set in. Raven was still a loner, even though boys asked her out every time the team went out for dinner. In a way, she'd made a personal mark in the team as always being the sought after single.  
"Hero worshipping," he remembered her saying once when they'd gone out for pizza and a movie to celebrate Cyborg and Bumblebee's engagement. They'd ended up being followed by pining guys trying to hit on Raven. It didn't bother them, but it aggravated the hell out of Raven to the point that she left, phasing through the street and meeting up with them at the theater. She'd been that way all the time, but never as tolerating until she'd come back. And here, at this point, Beast Boy's mind settled on its new topic.  
A short while after Terra had returned, Raven left. At first they'd just thought she decided to skip breakfast, but when she didn't show up for dinner, they worried a little bit. But again, Raven had had these kinds of stints before, so they decided to leave her be until the morning. When she didn't show again for breakfast, it was assumed that she'd gotten something to eat before Cyborg, the earliest riser, had woken up. Again the teens left her to her own devices, all the while oblivious to Starfire's fidgeting.  
Terra was probably the first one to notice, but Beast Boy always had a sneaking suspicion it was Cyborg who noticed first. They'd been eating lunch and Starfire had knocked over a glass of Coke on the table.

**_"Starfire, why are you so fidgety?" Terra asked, handing the girl paper towels. Starfire glanced at her as she helped Robin, whose glass she'd knocked over, wipe up the mess. Cyborg had currently vacated the table to make another sandwich since the soda had spilled into his plate. Beast Boy was wiping the underside of the table and the floor where soda was already escaping.  
"I am sorry, friend Terra, but I am _not_ fidgeting. I merely titled over Robin's glass of carbonated water and syrup."  
"And ruined a perfectly good turkey sandwich!" Cyborg ranted from the kitchen sink. Terra rolled her eyes as she pulled off more paper towels from the roll and handed them to Beast Boy.  
"Yes, Starfire, that's exactly it. You _never_ knock things over. Not _once_ have I seen you knock over an empty glass or even spill water when you fill an ice tray! So, why are you fidgeting enough to knock over a full glass of Coke?"  
"And ruin a good sandwich!"  
"Cyborg, for the love of God, would you shut up about the sandwich already! She said she was sorry!" Robin yelled at the eighteen year old. Cyborg pouted and muttered angrily under his breath as he fixed another sandwich.  
By this time Terra had made a good point and the soda was cleaned up. Beast Boy stood to get some wet paper towels to wipe the sticky table off, the rest of the teens, minus Starfire and Beast Boy, sat and waited for a reply from the Tameranean. Beast Boy sat back down at his plate, wiping the area around it with the paper towels before passing them off to Cyborg. Still standing, Starfire played with her hands as she looked at the ground, hair swinging from around her shoulders to create a curtain around her face.  
"It is about friend Raven," she said timidly. That got everyone's attention, Cyborg placing his sandwich down and causing Terra to stop munching her chips. Robin looked at her in concern.  
"What is it, Star?"  
Starfire looked up at her team through her hair. It had been a while. Surely Raven wouldn't be angered if she told them now. "Raven has left," she said, her tone timid but clear in volume. "She left yesterday night."  
The impact of the words took a moment to settle in. Robin stood suddenly, his chair falling to the ground. "What do you mean she left? Why!"  
Starfire looked up in alarm. "She said she needed to get away, that her powers were too unstable to stay much longer. She said she needed to train them to deal with..." At this point Starfire clammed up, slapping a hand over her mouth. Robin narrowed his eyes slightly.  
"Deal with what? Did she say?" he demanded. Starfire shook her head furiously, orange hair swinging into wide green eyes. Robin looked at her before calming and looking down at the floor. Without looking back up he asked, "Did she say when she'd be back?"  
Starfire shook her head, hands dropping from her mouth slightly. "No, she did not. Only that she would come back when she was ready and we needed her. Then she asked me to leave her room of dwelling. I have not seen her since and her door refuses to open to me."  
Robin looked up. "Won't open?" He looked at Cyborg. "Is that possible?" Cyborg shrugged and picked up his sandwich.  
"I've learned never to underestimate that girl." He dug into his sandwich, ignoring the awkwardness of the other Titans as they too returned to their meals._**

A light tapping at the door brought Beast Boy out of his brief reverie. "Come in!" he shouted to the person on the other side of the door. It slid open to reveal Terra, who arched her eyebrow at him. Beast Boy shot up like a rocket, flipping over and off his bed, taking the covers with him on his trip to the floor. He sat up under the mound of fabric. "Yeah?" He asked meekly. Terra smirked and leaned against the doorframe.

"Cyborg says he wants to talk to all of us." She tilted her head as she watched Beast Boy struggle to stick his head out.

Finally accomplishing this, he looked at her. "Why? It's even hotter in there." She shrugged, pushing off with her shoulder so she could stand.

"Not sure. He said it was really important and went to look for the others." She started to turn, but paused and looked back at him over her shoulder. "By the way. Nice boxers, BB." The door slid closed. Beast Boy blushed.

He always knew rubber ducks were lucky.

The Titans were assembled in the main room. Robin was pacing in front of Cyborg, who stood in front of the window. The computer console behind him beeped and brought up the security register.

Cyborg turned as Robin glanced up at it. Starfire stood behind the couch, Raven seated in front and to the left of her. Beast Boy fidgeted on the floor with Terra sitting on the couch, her legs leaning against his left arm. They were all nervous. Someone had invaded their home.

Someone who could easily come back.

"Is this it?" Robin asked, pointing to the triple log of 'T-Car' on the screen before a large space appeared between them and the next 'T-Car.' Cyborg nodded, clicking on the second one.

"This one was five minutes after we left, meaning they were waiting for us to leave." A screen of birds-eye-view video feed from the front of the Tower popped up. It showed the ground and door. Out of the top left corner, a tendril of light floated into view before the camera cut to static. Cyborg closed it and clicked the next log. "This one was fifteen minutes before we got back." He let the grim silence that followed continue.

"They knew we were coming back," Raven stated. The others cringed slightly, but Cyborg nodded.

"Yeah, they did," Cyborg confirmed. The video started. Like before, it started off showing the front walk ground. Only this time the door opened before light tendrils drifted out and swarmed the camera, making it cut to static. It resumed shortly after showing the walk as if nothing had even happened.

Cyborg closed the windows and turned to the somber team. He gave them a couple of seconds to let it all sink in. "When I checked out the Tower, the only thing I could find displaced was the med-lab. We're missing a lot of bandages, stitches, and anti-septic. Not that it's a big deal, but we'll want to restock in case they tampered with anything else." He frowned slightly as he contemplated telling the last thing. "That...and BB's entire tofu section's been cleaned out in the fridge as well as some of Starfire's stuff, too."

Cringes were exchanged at Beast Boy's reaction.

"What? My tofu's gone!" He shot up and over the dining counter, landing in front of the fridge. He yanked the door open and the Titans watched as he screamed and literally keeled over. Starfire floated over to the open fridge and peeked inside.

"It appears that my gorka berries missing," she stated calmly, brows furrowed slightly. "What would anyone want my gorka berries for?"

Almost as if on cue, an overly large Silkie managed to squirm into the room and gurgle, grinning.

"Well," Cyborg said, "at least we know they like pets. Or at least Silkie."

"Yeah, I think they liked Silkie," Raven muttered. The larva gurgles one more time before curling as far as he could on his side and went to sleep.

"Oo-kay," Cyborg muttered, turning to Robin. "Whoever it was that logged into the Tower would have had to go through the main frame in other to wipe the security clean. They would have had to log on as me or you..." Cyborg paused as Robin's expression. 'Oh no, he's not going to–!'

Robin looked at him. "Slade." Cyborg instantly felt like throttling the boy.

"No," came Raven's curt interruption as she quickly stood up, "do not put this into your Slade obsession. It's getting old. He- "

"- couldn't have done this," Robin finished, looking aggravated. "Slade's cocky and manipulative, not smart. Whoever did this knew we'd find out about it." He started pacing, staring at the ground as he went.

"Then why would they do it?" Terra asked, confused as she drew her legs up in front of her on the couch.

Robin shook his head. "I'm not sure. It may have been as a warning, it may have been nothing but a show of power."

"Do you think the one we were fighting had something to do with it?" Starfire asked, coming to sit between Raven (who had sat down only a moment before) and Terra. "She did admit to being the distraction of us." The others, save Beast Boy, looked at her.

Terra recovered first, "She has a point." Robin nodded and turned to the computer consol.

"She does." He typed a command and criminal files started flashing up on the screen. "Cyborg, can you upload a picture of her into the database, see if we get a match?"

"Yeah, hold on." His mechanical eye flashed. "Sent. Should be coming up in a second." A window opened and a pixilated picture started to focus.

It showed her when they just arrived and she had stood up. Robin zoomed in on her face and hit the search button. Pictures started to scroll past, red marks appearing in the corners of possible candidates. The search began to narrow itself down. A prompt popped up.

**No Direct Connections. Check Backgrounds?**

Cyborg hit yes as Robin went back to pacing. The girls fidgeted slightly, Raven shifting as she brought her legs up Indian style underneath her. So far there were no matches, not even possible ones. Robin stopped pacing and sighed. "This isn't working, Cy. Just stop- " The computer beeped.

Brother Blood's profile came up. Cyborg tensed. Pictures of students flashed up next to Blood's. It stopped on a random student who'd had the unfortunate luck of joining the High Five after Jinx had quit. He'd been arrested on his first outing with them and was the only one who hadn't gotten away. A picture of his arrest popped up. The computer zoomed in on the background where you could see spectators. It zoomed again.

And there she was. Standing near the forefront. Cyborg relaxed and shook his head. "That's it. She's not in any other profile." He looked up at the screen. Maybe we should just give it a rest."

Robin stopped and looked at him. "No way. Someone invaded our home and while we were fighting _her_, she admitted to being some kind of bait." He stopped and took a deep breath, eyes closing under his mask. He opened them, "Send her pictures to the Justice League and ask if they have anything on her. Make sure to tell them why. I'm going to the library to look through the archives and see if she's in any other articles. I should be back in three hours." They looked at him sternly, Starfire looking almost disappointed. He sighed. "I promise not to get fought up in figuring this out. I swear it." They just continued looking at him, Raven crossed her arms and Starfire began to look teary.

Now Robin felt bad as it was, and now his team thought he'd get caught up again (obsessed), but seeing Starfire getting ready to cry resolved him. He smiled. "Okay, if you guys promise to order Chinese and get me some Kung Pao Chicken, I'll be back in two." Cyborg, Raven, and Terra grinned as Starfire squealed and threw herself from the couch to hug Robin, who quickly went from red to purple.

------------------

W00t! 341 hits and this chapter is 5 pages! Anyway, I'm happy with how this came out. Means I can get further that I thought I would. As far as the years this is set in, it's after a lot of out current celebs have gone and either retired, overdosed, or died and left their kids to it. So Linkin Park and the others on BB's wall are Hendrix-classic status...or close to it, anyway. AA-YY are from an HP fic I'd started before my laptop was wiped, so now I'm re-planning it.

I was also asked on AIM why my paragraphs are so short. Answer: I write in my notebook before I transcribe to the computer. So a nice long paragraph on the computer is almost an entire page of writing. So if you're curious, there you go. Enjoi!

**Next Updates:** _Dancing to Find Nemo_ and _Blackbird Rising_


	5. 76 Broken Pieces

**Blackbird Rising**

by Notes

**A/N**: hello, faithful readers! I know I haven't gone and put any new chapters up for this, but I felt the need to put this up for you guys. My computer is currently on lockdown as it has been for the better part of a month, delaying me finishing up and posting the next chapter. So I've posting this instead.

It's a pivotal point and I'm only going to leave it up here for somewhere around two weeks. It's one of my 100 Theme Challenge entries as well, and that one's staying up. So, please enjoy this as I spoil you as much as I can!

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**76. Broken Pieces**

_excerpt from **Blackbird Rising** (by Snea)_

"What about me?! Where am I during all this?!" Terra asked, tears flashing in her eyes, voice breaking, temper flaring.

Zinthos watched her. And then, in the most graceful, _primal_ movement they'd seen her make, she pulled herself up to perch on the island counter. And it was suddenly realized that as young as she was, vulnerable as she seemed: _she was a threat_. If she'd had a tail, it would've been slowly flicking side-to-side across the frosted steel.

A red flag was raising itself and the others shifted behind their teammate. Zinthos regarded Terra with eyes full of haughtiness, as if she could care less what the older girl wanted to know. But there was a malevolence there that hid in the shadows of her eyes and caught the attention of Starfire, make a chill run up the redhead's spine.

"You're my sister." Terra flinched, going rigid with shock as she looked at the girl. The Titans watched in shock, a sense of uneasiness building in their stomachs as they glanced at each other. Something was going on here. In all the times the fourteen year-old had mentioned the future, she'd never mentioned Terra. And now the proverbial bomb was ticking as the red flag was torn to shreds in the wind.

"What?"

"You're my sister," Zinthos repeated, eyes going from haughty to defiant as her voice became hard and a British-like accent crept into it. "You're my sister. You're my daughter. You're remains below the earth." Her jaw tightened and her neck tensed, collar bones becoming prominent as she held back some kind of anger. "You're a haunting memory. One that changed my _world_. That's what you are Terra. _That's_ where you are!" And in a swift movement, the bomb went off.

And the Titans had no choice but to follow the path of a taut, trembling arm, down to the wrist, across the rigid finger that pointed out the window.

Out the window and towards the low mountain ridge that marked their horizon.

And in a voice, low and threatening, Zinthos continued. "That, _Tara __Markov_, is where you are. In _box_, _underneath_ a stone tablet, _eight feet_ below the surface; out of sight but never out of mind. Rejoice in it," they looked back at her sharply to find her glaring, eyes glowing with power and body flooded with a cold rage as she spat, "Because now you know where you are in my world, where you've been since before my _birth_, and yet you _still_ affect my every decision."

It was a predator's stance she fell into when she brutally pushed herself from the counter to step up to Terra, their faces inches away, horrified cobalt gaping at violent emerald-heliotrope. "Congratulations, Tara," she said, voice low and slick with hostility, "you got the attention you always wanted."

And then she left, leaving them to reel in the aftershock of the scene that had just played out before them. Left, as Terra sank to the floor and leaned over, crying hard, chest-heaving sobs, her hands over her face and tears streaming from between the fingers, hair fanned out on the surrounding floor like a crumpled curtain. The perfect likeness of a Nephilim, an angel fallen from grace...

...and the spirit to match.

_fin_

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**deviantART Notes**

**A/N**: ((whistles)) Dude...do you have _any_ idea how long I looked to find the term for a fallen angel? And I _still_ don't know what they're called! Anyway, this is probably the most emotion filled scene I've _ever_ done. And I have to say, other than that angel thing, I'm pretty damn proud of this.

...I think I'm gonna make this a dA exclusive until I get to the actual chapter. I just had to get this out of my mind though before I went nuts and murdered my government book. My original idea to have Zinthos tell Terra she was dead was _way_ less dramatic then this. Actually, it was pretty mundane important as it is. But this. ((shakes head)) This is what it needs to be, and what it should have been from the beginning. In fact, I think this is possibly the first thing I've written that I've wanted to post right away, no phrase edits (except that angel thing), no cut-throat proofing; straight to the web.

_Damn_ am I proud of this! ((nodding)) Good job, Roxie, very nice. ((pats self on back))

**A/N 2**: Fixed the angel line. Feel better now. XD


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